IRELAND’S VACCINE ROLLOUT is set to hit a new milestone today, with the two millionth dose of Covid-19 vaccine to be administered. 

HSE CEO Paul Reid confirmed the news at this afternoon’s HSE Covid-19 press briefing. 

“We do indeed expect to have the two millionth vaccine administered during the course of today,” Reid said. 

As of yesterday evening, a total of 1,971,253 vaccines have been administered, according to Reid. 

As of yesterday, 38% of the adult population have received their first dose and 14% have been fully vaccinated. 

The HSE chief said that they are on track to deliver over 250,000 vaccines during the course of this week. 

Covid-19 vaccine registration is currently open to people aged 50 to 59. Over 650,000 people have registered on the HSE’s online portal to date. 

Reid said the HSE is seeing a “continued strong vaccine confidence” in Ireland and that vaccine take-up rates “remain very strong”. 

He outlined that 96% of people in the 85+ age group have receive their first dose of vaccine, while 99% of the 80-84 age group and 97% of the 70-79 age group have received their first dose. 

In the 60-69 age group, 73% of people have received their first dose, while 26.5% of people in the 50-59 age group have received their first dose. The HSE continues to administer first doses in both these age groups.

Speaking at the Citywest vaccination centre this afternoon, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said today is a “really important day” in the vaccination programme. 

“It’s likely that we will administer our two millionth vaccine dose today,” Donnelly said. 

Amazing milestone that we are going to hit 2,000,000 vaccine doses administered today. A day we can all be proud of for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. I came along to Citywest vaccination centre to mark the moment. Thanks all for getting us here. @HSELive pic.twitter.com/haAj7H2OvN

— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) May 13, 2021

Drop in cases

Yesterday, health officials confirmed a further eight deaths and an additional 448 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. 

The HSE outlined today that there has been a 95% drop in daily cases from January’s peak of 8,248 cases per day. 

In the last four weeks, there has been 165 cases among those aged 75 or over, compared with 6,793 cases in the first four weeks of January. Last week there was just 16 cases in this age group. 

23 confirmed cases of Covid-19 over the age of 65 were known by the HSE to have been hospitalised last week. This is a drop from January’s peak of 942 cases of above 65s who were hospitalised. 

The HSE also outlined that there has been an average of zero to one outbreaks per week over the last six weeks in nursing homes. 

There was just one outbreak recorded in nursing homes last week, compared to January’s peak of 47.